Romance for Raj, Penny’s last name, Melissa Rauch’s killer impersonation of Mrs. Wolowitz and more fun moments from the CBS comedy’s Friday session.

During Friday’s Comic-Con panel — its first in the massive Hall H — NASA astronaut Richard Searfoss presented co-star Simon Helberg with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to journey to space aboard the Lynx Experience.

After Helberg, a new father, realized that Searfoss was serious he wound up passing — joking that “altitudes give me a lot of gas” and that he’s a picky eater. Ultimately, all the fans of age received envelopes with the chance at winning the flight, with one lucky woman waking away with the golden ticket to space.

With the writers only recently returning to work, a highlight panel from Season 5 was shown and the cast had a ball taking questions from fans.

Here are 11 other fun tidbits from Friday’s panel.

1. Favorite moments: Highlights for the cast and creators included Sheldon holding Amy’s hand, withJim Parsons noting that he enjoys the “exploration of the whole Amy and Sheldon relationship, it’s very fun to see where that’s going — as slowly as that may be,” with co-star Mayim Bialik kissing the screen on which her on-screen partner appeared on via satellite.

2. Dreams do come true: Exec producer Bill Prady, noted his highlight last year was being told that Star Trek icon (and his dream guest star) Leonard Nimoy was on the phone calling about a role on the show’s fifth season, with fellow EP Steve Molaro noting that he jumped up onto the stage to meet the star. Molaro, meanwhile, said his best moment came when he learned that he could shake guest star Stephen Hawking‘s hand — “and getting to know that they actually let you do that,” he added.

3. Howard’s pants: Other quips from the panel included Simon Helberg‘s gem on his wardrobe: “I help with the stuffing,” he said of his tight pants. “It’s a lot of sucking in and hanging,” he laughed.

4. Kaley Cuocoreally does understand the show’s all-around geekery — and science: “Why are you guys looking at me?! We went through this last year!”she laughed when the entire cast and creators looked in her direction after a fan asked if everyone understood the technical jargon on the show. The actress, who took heat last year at the Con from loyal fans for her seeming lack of geek cred, defended her ability to fashion Star Trek‘s “live long and prosper” hand gesture and received support from Prady, who noted she has difficulty fashioning the finger separation. Cute overload.

5. As for spoilers, EP Chuck Lorre teased that after Raj’s (Kunal Nayyar) unfortunate love affair with his iPhone’s Siri, the series has a fun follow-up planned for the guy who is unable to speak to women without booze. “We have a romance planed for Raj this year — wait until you see it!” he offered.

6. Will there ever be a crossover between Lorre’s Two and a Half Men and Big Bang? Lorre said any one of the guys could easily be a tutor for Men’s Jake. “He’s quite a knucklehead,” he joked.

7. The panel, which has featured the unseen voice of Howard’s mom last year and a live performance by the Barenaked Ladies the year prior, had another hugely fun moment when the cast sang “Soft Kitty” — in the round and almost totally on key. Impressive! A close second this year? Melissa Rauch plugging Bialik’s book on parenting — in a voice impersonating Howard’s unseen mother — asking if Howard would be interested in experimenting with adult breast feeding.

8. Cuoco — whose Penny is a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory — shared that she got a ton of looks from people when she went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. “It took me a long time to realize why they were looking at me,” she said, noting that she now tends to avoid dining there.

9. “I’m just a professional and I stay focused,” Parsons deadpanned in a very Sheldon fashion when a fan asked how he didn’t break character. Bazinga!

10. Weeks! That’s how long it took the crew to put together the Lego Death Star featured on the show. “It was a few nervous breakdowns around that Death Star,” Lorre said. Added Prady: It was originally cut from the episode it was supposed to be in but the series later added it to a subsequent episode in order to keep the poor woman who was tasked with putting it together.

11. “I think she’s just like Cher, she just goes by one name,” Cuoco joked about if Penny’s last name would ever be revealed. “Worst series finale reveal: Penny Jones,” Lorre laughed.

Johnny Galecki‘s flight from Iraq, where he was on a USO tour, was delayed and he was unable to attend the panel.

The whole cast will be there, but Jim Parsons will appear via satellite.

Comic-Con is a week away and the biggest comedy on TV is ready to take the biggest stage at the annual pop culture fiesta. The cast and producers of The Big Bang Theory are making their annual trek to the San Diego Convention Center on Friday, July 13, holding court in the iconic 6,500-seat Hall H. Adam Savage, co-host of Discovery’s Mythbusters, will moderate the panel, from 12:05pm to 1:05pm.

The Q&A session will feature cast members Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, Simon Helberg,Kunal Nayyar, Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch, and executive producers Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady and Steven Molaro. Jim Parsons, currently starring on Broadway in the revival of Harvey, will appear via satellite. The Big Bang panel always provides some of the top highlights of the Con, including a sing-along of the show’s theme song led by the Barenaked Ladies in 2010, and Rauch’s hilarious impersonation of Mrs. Wolowitz last year.

The cast will also have an autograph-signing session (details here) and TV Guide Magazine‘s Rob Moynihan will host a Q&A with Prady and Molaro on Warner Bros.’ Extra stage (adjacent to the convention center) on Friday at 3pm.